Diane Bicknell of New Holland-Middletown School November winner of the Graue Amazing Teacher Award
One teacher to win 2016 Chevrolet Cruze this coming Saturday


 

[December 11, 2020]   On Thursday morning, the entire student population at New Holland-Middletown School in Middletown was on hand to witness a special presentation to one of their favorite teachers.

Diane Bicknell was chosen as the November Amazing Teacher Award winner. The Amazing Teacher contest is sponsored by Graue Chevrolet in Lincoln. November marked the final month for the project with the grand prize presentation coming this Saturday, December 12th at the Graue dealership.

On Thursday morning, all the students and teachers came outside to watch.

Among the teachers was Bicknell, who had no idea she was about to be selected. Graue Owner/General Manager Chris Graue called Bicknell to join him in front of the 2016 Chevrolet Cruze that will be given away at the end of this week.

He shared with her that she had been nominated multiple times for the November award and that a panel of judges had reviewed all the nominations and determined that it would be fitting and proper to give the last monthly award to Bicknell.

The monthly award included a $100 gift card given to Bicknell. Graue explained that the card was hers personally to use as she chose, whether in the classroom or for something that she would like to have for herself.

Graue also explained what will happen this coming weekend. There are eight monthly winners who have been invited to visit the dealership on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Each winner will be given a key fob and the fob that works with the Cruze will be the winner.

Graue also explained that the contest had been temporarily interrupted by the coronavirus. The original intent had been to give a monthly award throughout the 2019-20 school year. Awards had been given late last fall and very early in the year this year. Then due to the suspension of school activities, the contest had also been put on hold.

This fall, Graue resumed the contest, setting a goal of running the monthly events through November and holding the car presentation event in December.

Bicknell appeared to be a bit in shock that she had been nominated and won the monthly award. She listened quietly as Graue read his statement about the award and then she thanked him and her students for the nomination and the win.

When they were finished with the formal announcement Graue took Bicknell to the side and gave her a look at some of the comments that had been made about her as a dedicated teacher in the New Holland-Middletown School.

The eight teachers participating in the final event this Saturday are Carly Powell, Jennifer Gouin, Eric Grunder, Kerry Burke, Shanna Schneider, Bev Wunderland, Emily Lund and Bicknell.

[Nila Smith]